Couple's fight to the death with grizzly bear heard on tape

The self-taught bear expert was playing with fire, Jai-Rui Chong and Steve Hymo write.

Timothy Treadwell can be heard desperately fighting off a grizzly bear on a three-minute audiotape of the mauling that claimed his life and that of his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, in Katmai National Park and Preserve earlier this week, Alaska state troopers say.

The Malibu, California, couple had been camping in a remote corner of the 1.6 million hectare park on Alaska's south-west coast to observe the bears. Mr Treadwell, 46, was a self-taught bear expert who frequently described his adventures with the animals on television and in schools.

The couple's remains were found on Monday by the bush pilot who had flown to their camp to pick them up.

The audiotape, believed to have been made on Sunday night, is from a hand-held video camera that Mr Treadwell used to record his encounters with the bears, some of which weigh more than 450 kilograms, police said. There was no film of the attack, said Alaska State Troopers information officer, Greg Wilkinson.

Mr Treadwell was last heard from at noon on Sunday, when he used a satellite phone to call a friend in Malibu.

Mr Wilkinson said the tape begins with sounds of Mr Treadwell screaming that he is being attacked and calling for help to 37-year-old Ms Huguenard, who was apparently still inside a tent. "It's obvious that the attack was going on before the tape was turned on," said Mr Wilkinson, who quoted from the tapes.

That strategy is commonly used to pacify angry bears in an attack. But Mr Treadwell told Ms Huguenard the strategy was not working and she urged him to "fight back".

Mr Treadwell, who never carried weapons, then asked her to get a pan and to hit the bear, police said. At that point, the tape - much of it fuzzy and inaudible, stops, Mr Wilkinson said.

Investigators had found the camera inside a bag at the couple's campsite, but Mr Wilkinson said he did not know whether one of the National Park Service rangers or state troopers who responded to the scene had put the camera in the bag or whether Ms Huguenard had done so before she was killed.

The beginning of the tape included video and audio of Mr Treadwell interacting with the bears in the days before the attack. "The troopers who saw the tape said that, at one point, Mr Treadwell is doing something and a bear suddenly comes up behind him and he has that 'oh my God' look on his face," Mr Wilkinson said. "I'm sure all along he knew that he was playing with fire and that probably was part of the appeal."

Mr Treadwell had spent the last 13 summers in Alaska.

Dean Andrew, owner of Andrew Airways in Alaska, said the pilot found an empty camp when he landed on Monday.

He only just made it back to the plane as a bear charged him.

The pilot took off. Once airborne, he saw that a bear was in Treadwell's camp, standing on top of a human body.

Two grizzlies were shot by investigators when they went to the camp to recover Mr Treadwell and Ms Huguenard's remains.